Nasher

Got to love it when MFC and Casey both play on Sunday - 13 man interchange. And obviously at least two of those players won't play due to being selected in the MFC side. Hope Neal-Bullen gets a run. It would be a shame (for me, because I'm impatient) if his momentum got broken purely because the development league has a bye.

The last two games he has only spent 75-76% of time time on the ground for 19 poessessions both games - on a "possession rate" basis that is as good as anyone, but it's low TOG numbers. Against Richmond, only Brayshaw, Michie, Kent and Jetta spent less time on the ground - a baby, the sub and two players injured early. To me that points to a question about tank, not a question about finding the ball. Or just a question of seniority - he's being asked to play as a second string midfielder perhaps.

Can't say my nerves are any better for it. At the moment I'm still waiting for the capitulation, but that is slowly fading.

Fair enough. In that context, I agree.

Ah, the old "I don't remember saying that" defence. Just enough denial to avoid owning up to your own actions, but can still claim you didn't lie about it when it's proven you did say it. The ultimate weasle words.

Best of luck.

It's really not - there are a lot of ways to "do a hammy" and it would seem Kent suffered one of the worst ways. I'm really disappointed for the guy. He's been pretty unlucky in his attempts to string together a good run of footy. 10-12 sounds like forever.

Thanks for that - I already thought he stood up before I knew that he wasn't participating in the rotations. Gutsy. I know it's been asked before, but what's your connection with Viv?

I just got home and turned the TV on. I am assuming I entered some sort of alternate universe on my 45 min drive home somehow, because Hawthorn appear to be down by 51 points at half time.

I got sick of people spelling it with an 'o' in it, so I put it in to the word censor. I thought this was a nice subtle way of helping people.

Close. Guess again.

Favourite Tom Mc moment: Last quarter, Jack Riewoldt goes on a long lead. (TV camera kindly pans out so I can see what's happening for once.) McDonald chases him as far as the 50, then turns around and runs back as if to say "fine, get it up there as much as you want". Ball ends up in the midfield and kicks it... straight to where TMac has formed a 2 on 1 against the only Richmond forward. Could see it coming from a mile off. He recognized in an instant that he'd lost the first contest and instead prepared for the contest that came two disposals later. Loved it

Michie was close to our best mid after Jones in the second half I thought, just seemed to be in everything. He was clearly playing with confidence. Van Demon!

He's been Panced so far. I know. Groan.

Really feel for Drummond. First game. Looked absolutely awful.

The combined banner capped off an amazing ceremony. Like dazz, I got goosebumps. Proud of both clubs for the amazing display. Now make with the winning!

This is the relevant figure - % of salary cap. Without it you can't compare how much a player is earning relative to others, which is the thing that matters. The fact that 650k sounds like a lot of money (and it is, if you're comparing it to your own income) is irrelevant. I reckon too many people get stars in their eyes when looking at player salaries.

I saw that at the time too. Thought he must have just put a cross through the names of anyone he hadn't heard of before. It's the only logic I could come up with to justify such nonsense.

It's amazing how stable our side has been so far. Michie is player #25 used, on all changes listed today only Sydney have used fewer (24), and GWS, Freo and Adelaide are equal (assuming the Crows don't pick Matt Crouch in their final side). I can't remember an MFC side so settled. This is a very good sign in my opinion. Obviously few injuries comes down to luck, but only two players have been omitted so far and one of those returned the next week. You know Michie has been forced to bust a gut to get in. Best of luck to him.

I thought the same thing, all Burgs had to do was prompt and away he'd go. He was clearly nervous as he got tongue tied and was breathless, but otherwise he came across as a natural speaker. Pretty impressive interview, I thought.

Not sure if that stat exists, but I doubt it does because it's so subjective. Obviously tackles that cause a free kick for, or cause a stoppage would be 'effective', but there's plenty of grey area. How about a tackle where the tacklee does a 360, gets an arsey kick away that happens to dribble out in front of a teammate - effective tackle Y/N? Also, do those hugs that have no impact on the tacklee at all actually count on the stats sheet as a tackle?

Watts is better than any of the players playing in the VFL and adds more to the team. No matter how much he may frustrate some people with his style, that's the only thing that will dictate his selection. Those that want him dropped to "send a message" or whatever need to move on from the 1980s.

There's a lot of water to pass under the bridge before I'd be declaring these guys the nucleus of anything. Only one of them has even played yet, and law of averages suggest at least one of them won't make the grade at all. MFC fans of all should be well aware of the dangers of counting chickens before they've hatched when it comes to young players, no matter how sure a thing it seems at the time.

Thanks. I've said it all along, though. Get him a nice girlfriend from Melbourne, play some good footy as a team, a big pile of cash and a few extra years of maturity up his sleeve, it'll be amazing how much less he'll feel like going home by the time he's 25. Melbourne will be home. For mine, the contract extension just gone was the danger one (when he's still young and unsettled). That he signed that one, and early, is a fantastic sign for me.

It's easy to say that from the comfortable position of never having had every man and his dog having an opinion on your work when they have no idea of the details of it (playing injured, doing as instructed by coach etc). I imagine it's water off a duck's back for most players, but as each individual is different, you can't always predict how people are going to react when the criticism is relentless, excessive and unreasonable.